Shifting values of ‘primitiveness’ among the Zafimaniry of Madagascar: an anthropological approach to tourist mediators' discourses

Abstract

This article studies the origins, the production and the ambivalent uses of a ‘primitive narrative' about the Zafimaniry of Madagascar. The analysis focuses on tourism mediators’ discourses and how they are challenged by the actual tourists' experiences; it is based on participant observation, interviews and web analysis. From national tour operators to local tour guides, the mediators' communicative staging of the Zafimaniry recalls and broadens the notion of ‘primitiveness’, using it as an element of fascination and nostalgia. However, the actual tourists' experience questions this perspective, responding with a ‘philanthropic’ narrative, a desire to engage in action and relieve from poverty. Both discourses reveal however of a comparative nature and stem from the same logic: a way of ‘meeting the Other’ from a Western perspective.